Can we talk about how I used to map a dig site versus how I do it now?

Back in my volunteer days, maybe 8 years ago, we'd spend a whole morning just laying out a grid with string and stakes for a 10x10 meter unit. It was slow, and a good wind could ruin it. Now, on a project in Tucson last fall, we used a total station for the same job. We had the whole area, plus a bunch of outlying test pits, mapped with millimeter accuracy in under an hour. The data goes straight into the project GIS. It's not just faster, it lets us ask different questions about the space. Has anyone else had a piece of tech completely change their field method?

4 comments

4 Comments

casey2685d agoProlific Poster

Honestly, are we really acting like string got blown away that often?

shane_morgan2mo ago

Total stations are great for speed. But the old string grid forced you to look at every inch of dirt as you laid it out. Sometimes the slow way made you see things you'd miss now.

the_sage2mo agoMost Upvoted

Heard that before, @shane_morgan. Tech makes us blind sometimes.

hannahj492mo ago

Oh man, that's so true. I read an article about how archaeologists feel the same way, @the_sage. All the laser scanning can miss the small stuff you'd spot with your own eyes.